Pope Francis' Korea trip spotlights Christian presence in Asia

Workers hang on ropes to adjust a banner welcoming Pope Francis on a building in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014. Pope Francis is scheduled to make a five-day trip to South Korea, starting Aug. 14 to participate in a Catholic youth festival and to preside over a beatification ceremony for 124 Korean martyrs. The banner reads: "Pope Francis, Welcome to South Korea."

Ahn Young-joon, Associated Press

Summary

While much of Asia is unfriendly territory for Christian missionaries, this week's visit by Pope Francis to South Korea spotlights one of the region's most Christian nations.

When Pope Francis visits the Republic of Korea starting Thursday, he isn't merely dropping in on the Asian Youth Day celebrations organized by Catholics in the region. The pontiff is also touching down in a religious "melting pot" and an emerging center of Christianity in Asia.

"In the last national census to include religious affiliation, conducted in 2005, close to 30 percent of South Koreans identified themselves as Christian, compared to 23 percent who cited the once-dominant Buddhism. The majority are Protestants, but Catholics are the fastest-growing group, with around 5.3 million adherents — just over 10 percent of the population," AFP reported.

According to The Boston Globe, Korea's Buddhists and Christians get along quite nicely, with banners reading "Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus" hanging from Buddhist temples during the Christmas season, and Catholic congregations sending greetings to Buddhist neighbors on Buddha's birthday.

"We’re the melting pot of religions," Wonjun Woo of the Hannim Biblical Institute in Seoul told the Globe. "South Korea is the only nation where Buddhism and Christianity coexist with equal power."

It wasn't always the case: Hundreds of Korean Catholics were martyred in the 18th and 19th centuries because Confucians at the time viewed Christianity as "subversive and barbaric," the AFP account noted. One report indicates as many as 10,000 Korean Catholics were killed during the persecution under the Joseon Dynasty, whose rule ended when Japan annexed Korea in 1910.

During his visit, Francis will beatify 124 Korean martyrs at an open-air Mass, the last step before a person is declared a saint. In 1984, St. John Paul II, then pope, canonized more than 100 other martyrs.

"I was baptized as an infant, and I've been a Catholic for about 50 years, but I've been asking myself whether I could do" what the martyrs did, Kim Dong Sup, a 55-year-old office worker from a prominent Catholic family that includes 13 martyrs told the Associated Press. "What they did was incredible," he added.

A descendant of Kwon Sang-yeon, one of Korea's first Catholic martyrs, is now an officer, or minister, in the Salvation Army, a Protestant movement that arrived in Korea in 1908. Kwon Sungil, age 58, didn't realize his family history until a church researcher informed him, the report said.

Upon learning this, he told the AP, "I realized that it was my ancestor's will that I should be in ministry."

Meanwhile, Catholic leaders are a bit in awe of the pope's pending presence. "There's more than meets the eye and pretense does not work for Pope Francis," the Korea Times quotes Nazarius Yoo Heung-sik, Roman Catholic bishop of Daejeon. "I am excited over the pope's visit as much as I dread it. Pope Francis raised the bar for the life of priests and bishops. I aim to live like the pope, but I am insufficient to live like him."

Mark A. Kellner, a national reporter for the Deseret News, has written about issues of faith and freedom since 1983, including 11 years of editorial work for the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters in Silver more ..